


How old was he when

by Tabby_floof



Series: Age is a number that tethers us in time [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Abandonment, Also Japan, Angst, Backstory, Character's Name Spelled as Viktor, Childhood, Fluff, Gen, Ice Skating, Life snapshots, Minor, Nikolai is a good dude, Russia, Yuri Needs A Hug, Yuri centric, headcanons, i feel like im forgetting something, i wrote this all at once lol, just my theory on Yuri's backstory, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 12:20:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9384809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabby_floof/pseuds/Tabby_floof
Summary: Yuri Plisetsky was only seven years old when he became a soldier, and he was only sixteen when he realized he didn't have to be.OrYuri Plisetsky's childhood through a series of snapshots. He has ice in his blood, ambition on his mind, and love in his heart.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is really short, and I wrote it all at once. It has not been beta'd so sorry for any mistakes. The mentioned abuse is minor and not explicit in any way, (It is literally one or two lines). I hope you enjoy this!!!

Yuri was born on a freezing cold morning the first day of March. He arrived the same time a terrible storm did, one of the last of the season, spreading ice and snow everywhere; Grandpa always said the cold was in his blood. He was small from birth, barely making five pounds. His slight size, pale skin, and shiny blonde hair earned him the nickname fairy before he had ever even had a pair of skates on; ever stood on the ice. 

It was his mother who took him the first time, a birthday treat. He was only four years old, and already known for his temper and pride; he wouldn’t let anyone help him, and only agreed to hold onto a chair after falling twice. After that first visit, he wanted to be on the ice all the time. Usually it was his Grandpa that took him, not his mother, and only if he had been good. 

He started school when he was five, making enemies out of classmates and teachers alike, and the trips to skate were less frequent. When he did get to go however, he skated circles around everyone his age. 

That same year his mother met a man, Vlad. Vlad was tall and handsome, he was nice to Yuri and made his mother laugh, things were good. Then they got married. Vlad changed, he didn’t want another man’s child in his house. In private, where his mother couldn’t see, Vlad was mean to him, told him he didn’t want him, and that he’d better watch it or he’d throw him out. Yuri became surlier and more withdrawn. Only his Grandpa noticed. He took him to the rink more often to try and cheer him up. Yuri kept getting better. 

Yuri was six years old when his mother got pregnant. She was ecstatic. Vlad couldn’t keep his hands off her, always touching her stomach. He did everything for her, waited on her hand and foot, he was still mean to Yuri. 

Yuri’s little sister was born on the first day of December. Mama joked that all of her babies would be born on first days. Alina was bigger than he had been, and had Vlad’s dark hair. She cried loudly and hated the cold. His mother stopped going to skate with him at all.

The day Yuri turned seven, there was a storm so big no one could go outside, it was as if the world stopped. That was year where a lot of things stopped.  
Yuri was seven when his grandmother died. Yuri’s Grandmother had spent most of his young life sick, and Yuri had rarely seen her, especially after his mother married Vlad. Vlad didn’t like her. When he had seen her however, she was always very kind. He had her hair and small frame, and she was the one who taught him to make pirozhki one winters day before Alina was born. Grandpa was very lonely without her, and spent more time with Yuri than ever. They went skating a lot, and Yuri got even better (he even had a proper teacher named Ivan who told him he had talent, that he could go far). 

His mother got pregnant again that year, and with twins on the way, they would need a bigger house. Yuri was seven when Vlad got a job in America, and he was seven when his mother moved there and left him behind. She said it was because they didn’t want him to have to change schools, to learn a new language, but Yuri knew it was really because Vlad didn’t want to raise another man’s son, especially know that he was going to have his own.

Yuri was seven when he stopped being a fairy, and became a soldier. 

Yuri’s eighth birthday dawned with a clear sky, no snow to be seen. His Grandpa took him skating, and he tried not to think about his mother. 

Ivan, Yuri’s teacher, realized that he would soon be more advanced that what he could teach, and got him a slot in Yakov’s summer camp. Yuri absorbed knowledge and technique like a sponge, he excelled in ballet, and never complained. Yuri was eight years old when Otabek Altin, in the novice ballet class and still not succeeding, saw him and realized something that no one else did; that he was a soldier. 

When the camp ended, Yuri was offered the opportunity to be trained by Yakov himself. Yuri called his Grandpa, told him he was being taken on as a student and would be living in St. Petersburg now, and it was with some sadness and a little bit of relief that Grandpa said he would help him pack his things. (He loved Yuri, but he was old and tired).

Yuri’s next few birthdays passed without much excitement in St. Petersburg. He trained hard, improved, and started competing in junior competitions. He won and kept winning. He met Viktor Nikiforov, living legend and one of his idols, he trained with him and won some more. He purposefully didn’t think about his mother, or answer questions about his family, and he grew. 

Yuri was fifteen when he met Yuuri Katsuki. He had looked for him when the competition was over, wanted to tell him that he thought he was great, even if he had lost, that he shouldn’t quit. Instead he screamed at him in the men’s bathroom. His Grandpa was always telling him to control his temper, but he just couldn’t help it. He had heard Yuuri crying in a stall, and had seen red. How dare he cry when all he had done was lose, someone always had to lose. How dare he cry when he could go home, not Detroit, but home (so maybe Yuri had stalked him online, and read every interview he ever gave, he liked the guy) to Japan, where he could go back to his no doubt perfect family. Yuri had walked away from the encounter disappointed, in himself and other Yuri. They always did say never to meet your idols. 

Yuri was sixteen when Viktor went flying all the way to Japan to coach other Yuri, the guy who just a year earlier had drunkenly humped him. So maybe it wasn’t rational to follow him there just because of a promise, but a promise was a promise, (and the way he had just left felt a little bit too much like his mother going to America for him to ignore).

Yuri was sixteen, and he couldn’t believe how ridiculous Viktor was being. He refused to come back to Russia unless Yuri won this stupid contest, so he would win. But. But he had to skate agape, unconditional love. Yuri had buried the part of him that loved unconditionally when he was seven years old and his mother left him. At least Other Yuri wasn’t doing much better, he had gotten eros, and all he could come up with for inspiration was his favorite food. (so maybe the fact that he had found some inspiration at all put him ahead of him, but he didn’t have to think about that)

When Viktor made him and Yuuri go stand under some stupid waterfall, after he had already made him go to some stupid temple, he was annoyed, he was unhappy. But then, he finally found it, agape. His Grandpa taking him skating when he was six and his mother couldn’t, wouldn’t because of Alina. He tried not to think about his mother, it only brought unhappiness. Something must have shown on his face, because Yuuri (stupid pig, his brain corrected) pulled him out from under the water and said they should leave. 

Yuri was sixteen when he lost the stupid contest to that stupid pig. He knew before the contest was even over that he had lost. Viktor was looking at Yuuri like his mother used to look at Vlad, but softer somehow. Yuri was sixteen when someone he loved chose the love of another over him for the second time. 

In the months that followed, Yuri moved again, this time to live with Yakov, and Lilia, Yakov’s ex-wife. He took more ballet than he ever had in his life. He honed his programs, and tried to ignore Viktor and the pig when he saw them on tv or in the news. He skated against JJ, and somehow didn’t kill him, and then he skated against Yuuri. It wasn’t his best performance of agape he would admit, and then before he knew it, Viktor was flying back to Japan because his hairball dog was sick, how pathetic. (Yuri chose not to think about the fact that he would do exactly the same thing for his cat). 

He ended up sharing a room with Yuuri, because the universe hated him apparently. He learned that Yuuri called his parents after every major competition, and he tried to ignore the ache in his chest that his mother would never squeal over the phone for him like that. When Yuri didn’t call anyone (because the only one he could have called was his grandpa, and he would be in bed by now) Other Yuuri didn’t ask annoying questions, and he didn’t say anything when Yuri put on a random tv show to try and distract himself. (It was those two things that caused him to give the piggy the pirozhki the next day, not anything that happened during the competition, but Yuri was not growing fond of him. He wasn’t.)

Yuri was sixteen years old, and he had made it to the Grand Prix final. He was sixteen, and he didn’t have anyone to spend time with when Yakov told him he had to stop practicing before he hurt himself. He killed time alone in his room, and when that got boring tried to sightsee and run away from his fans at the same time. 

Yuri was sixteen when he met Otabek again. He was sixteen when he made his first real friend. He was terrified of trusting people, of needing them, but then Otabek told him he had the eyes of a soldier, and Yuri was stunned. Someone had realized what so many people didn’t. That he wasn’t made of glass, or a fairy, that he had fought, and lost, and worked, to get where he was, and so he took the hand that was stretched out to him, and didn’t let himself worry about what would happen when Otabek left. 

Yuri Plisetsky was sixteen when he got everything he had worked for and became the youngest person ever to win the Grand Prix final. He was sixteen when he realized that even if his mother had left him behind, had never come back or made an attempt to see him, there were people who cared about him, who valued him. Yuri was sixteen when he realized he wasn’t alone; that Grandpa, and Yakov, and Otabek, and Lilia, and even Viktor and Katsudon, cared about him. Yuri Plisetsky was sixteen when he made peace with himself, when accepted that his past did not matter, and that he could move totally and completely forward.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this, it was rattling around in my head, and I just had to write it out. Obviously none of this is canon lol. Hugs for everyone!!!


End file.
